John Updike In Scientific American The Dance Of The Solids

Editor’s note: These verses were composed after John Updike had read the September 1967 issue of Scientific American, which was devoted to materials. They appeared in his book Midpoint and Other Poems, and are reproduced with the generous permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. We are posting it to mark Updike’s death today at the age of 76.

All things are Atoms: Earth and Water, Air And Fire, all, Democritus foretold. Swiss Paracelsus, in’s alchemic lair, Saw Sulfur, Salt, and Mercury unfold Amid Mellennial hopes of faking Gold. Lavoisier dethroned Phlogiston; hen Molecular Analysis made bold Forays into the gases: Hydrogen Stood naked in the dazzled sight of Learned Men. The Solid State, however, kept its grains Of Microstructure coarsely veiled until X-ray diffraction pierced the Crystal Planes That roofed the giddy Dance, the taut Quadrille Where Silicon and Carbon Atoms will Like Valencies, four-figured, hand in hand With common Ions and Rare Earths to fill The lattices of Matter, Glass or Sand, With tiny Excitations, quantitatively grand.

The Metals lustrous Monarchs of the Cave, Are ductile and conductive and opaque Because each Atom generously gave Its own Electrons to a mutual Stake, A Pool that acts as Bond. The Ions take The stacking shapes of Spheres, and slip and When pressed or dented; thusly Metals make A better Paper Clip than a Window, Are vulnerable to Shear, and heated, brightly glow.

Ceramic, muddy Queen of human Arts, First served as simple Stone. Feldspar supplied Crude Clay; and Rubies, Porcelain, and Quartz Came each to light. Aluminum Oxide Is typical ¬– a Metal is allied With Oxygen ionically; no free Electrons form a lubricating tide, Hence, Empresslike, Ceramics tend to be Resistant, porous, brittle, and refractory.

Prince Glass, Ceramic’s son, though crystal-clear Is no wise crystalline. The fond Voyeur And Narcissist alike devoutly peer Into Disorder, the Disorderer Being Covalent Bondings that prefer Prolonged Viscosity and spread loose nets Photons slip through. The average Polymer Enjoys a Glassy state, but cools, forgets To slump, and clouds in closely patterned Minutes

The Polymers, those giant Molecules, Like Starch and Polyoxymethylene, Flesh out, as protein serfs and plastic fools, The Kingdom with Life’s Stuff. Our tme has seen The synthesis of Polyisoprene And many cross-linked Helixes unknown To Robert Hooke; but each primordial Bean Knew Cellulose by heart: Nature alone Of Collagen and Apatite compounded Bone.

What happens in these Lattices when Heat Transports Vibrations through a solid mass? T = 3Nk is much too neat; A rigid Crystal’s not a fluid Gas. Debye in 1912 proposed Elas- Tic Waves called phonons which obey Max Planck’s Great Quantum Law. Although amorphous Glass, Umklapp Switchbacks, and Isotopes play pranks Upon his Formulae, Debye deserved warm Thanks.

Electroconductivity depends On Free Electrons: in Germanium A touch of Arsenic liberates; in blends Like Nickel Oxide, Ohms thwart Current. From Pure Copper threads to wads of Chewing Gum Resistance varies hugely. Cold and Light As well as “doping” modify the sum Of Fermi Levels, Ion scatter, site Proximity, and other factors recondite.

Textbooks and Heaven only are Ideal; Solidity is an imperfect state. Within the cracked and dislocated Real Nonstoichiometric crystals dominate. Stray Atoms sully and precipitate; Strange holes, excitons, wander loose; because Of Dangling Bonds, a chemical Substrate Corrodes and catalyzes – surface Flaws Help Epitaxial Growth to fix adsorptive claws.

While Sunlight, Newton saw, is not so pure; A Spectrum bared the Rainbow to his view. Each Element absorbs its signature: Go add a negative Electron to Potassium Chloride; it turns deep blue, As Chromium incarnadines Sapphire. Wavelengths, absorbed, are reemitted through Fluorescence, Phosphorescence, and the higher Intensities that deadly Laser Beams require.

Magnetic Atoms, such as Iron, keep Unpaired Electrons in their middle shell, Each one a spinning Magnet that would leap The Bloch Walls whereat antiparallel Domains converge. Diffuse Material Becomes Magnetic when another Field Aligns domains like Seaweed in a swell. How nicely microscopic forces yield, In Units growing Visible, the World we wield! *Note: (1/29/09): This poem was originally published without last two lines of the first stanza. Apologies to John Updike, and thanks to Bongobimbo for pointing out the omission.

The Solid State, however, kept its grains Of Microstructure coarsely veiled until X-ray diffraction pierced the Crystal Planes That roofed the giddy Dance, the taut Quadrille Where Silicon and Carbon Atoms will Like Valencies, four-figured, hand in hand With common Ions and Rare Earths to fill The lattices of Matter, Glass or Sand, With tiny Excitations, quantitatively grand.

*Note: (1/29/09): This poem was originally published without last two lines of the first stanza. Apologies to John Updike, and thanks to Bongobimbo for pointing out the omission.